Obama running on empty

I told the story this morning of my mother first teaching me to strum a four-string guitar to the tune of Pete Seeger’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” As far as folk classics go, it is a hard one to beat. Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” comes in a close second, I suppose, when the poet of the Sixties generation asked a series of penetrating questions.

“How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man?” is a good one, but for my money, “How many years can a people exist, before they’re allowed to go free?” is as timely as it gets.

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Obama's health care evolution

If there were a political troubadour whose grim task it was to write folk songs based on Washington’s happenings in the Age of Obama, he might paraphrase Dylan’s lyrics to ask “”How many years can a president talk, before he is no longer heard?”

After years of promising the American people of his intention to turn his focus to fixing the economy, rebuilding the middle class, and bringing jobs back to the U.S., too many voters have concluded that President Obama’s efforts have been, and will continue to be, inadequate. This week’s polls paint a troubling number for the administration, with Americans telling NBC News/Wall Street Journal pollsters that they trust Republicans more than Democrats to fix the economy. Over 60 percent of respondents told ABC and the Washington Post that they have no confidence in the president’s plans, and over 70 percent believe the United States is still headed in the wrong direction.

Mr. Obama, you have officially entered the world of George W. Bush.

After five years of rhetorically inspiring promises to “pivot” or “re-double our efforts” or “focus like a laser” on jobs and the economy, it’s becoming clear to the nation that day will never come as long as Barack Obama is president. His Affordable Care Act encourages small businesses to move forward with fewer employees, and his plan to push a higher minimum wage bill through Congress will only end up hurting the very people he seeks to help. Instead of promoting programs that will help small businesses grow, Obama Democrats will continue to champion bills that strap employers with more regulations and higher taxes.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama will once again tell the country that things are looking up – that the state of our union is strong, and that the economy is improving. He’ll say that, despite a slightly lower unemployment rate and an improving housing market, he’s still not satisfied and “we’ve still got work to do.”

In that vein, he will debut a number of poll-tested thematic flourishes – 2014 is the “Year of Action” is one – designed to reassure his flagging base that all of that talk about “compromise” is meant for Republican ears only.

He’ll talk about his desire to pass an immigration bill and provide education incentives to aspiring college students, but he will speak mostly of his intent to focus on improving the economic plight of the middle class, which will begin with an initiative to raise the minimum wage.

What he won’t say is what he’s probably been thinking of telling his speechwriters for the past few weeks, which is, “Guys, I’ve got nothing.”

“What’s left for me to say to Americans, still suffering through this weak economy, that I didn’t say last year, or the year before, or the year before? What does “Year of Action” even mean? Since I got elected, the rich have kept getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. The banks that were too big to fail when I got sworn in are even bigger. More people keep giving up even looking for jobs every year. And I still have no idea how to pass even the most simple bill through Congress.”

“Do I really have to stand up in front of the entire nation and recycle my last four State of the Union speeches? Do you really think people are going to be too stupid to realize that we are just changing the date on top of it? “

Good questions. I doubt any of the president’s men or women have the answers to those troubling questions that need to be asked.

Since there is no clear path out of the political trap the president finds himself in, expect Barack Obama to turn back to the blame game—telling us all that if only Republicans embraced massive new regulations on businesses and individuals, the American economy would once again soar. If leaks out of the White House are any indication, it sounds like the the State of the Union will be used to rally a political base instead of launching an effort to get millions of Americans back to work.

To remedy this unpleasant situation, the President will promise that his Year of Action will proceed with or without the consent of Congress – his passion and commitment to his social and economic policies will not be guided by constitutional norms or imperatives, but by his own self-righteous conscience, which will compel him to “do it himself.”

The problem with all of this is self-evident. Neither Barack Obama or any other president will ever be able to pass a comprehensive economic plan that will reform taxes, promote energy independence, create jobs, and reduce income inequality without going through proper constitutional channels. The president knows this, but he also knows that he finds Republicans on Capitol Hill so distasteful that in the end, it just isn’t worth the effort.

So how many more years will we have to listen to the same Barack Obama speech before finally realizing that this president is incapable of delivering on his promises to fix America’s economy? Unless the president finally learns how to move toward meaningful compromise, the answer is “two.”